


It is the wind, that shows you the way.

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Series: Marie's TSB Fills 2020 [25]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, First Dates, First Meetings, Fluff, Howard Stark's funeral, Mentions of Cancer, Recovering cancer patients Pepper and Tony, Weddings, fast forward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:47:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24876397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: You find your soulmate in a dream they say, and that dream can be so many things at once sometimes you don't realize that's what your subconscious has been telling you, and yet it was.Pepperony Week, Day 5 (Wednesday, June 24):  Fanfic Prompt: Soulmate AUPepperony Bingo Fill, G2: SicknessTony Stark Bingo Fill, S4: A Wedding and A Funeral - (card 3026)
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Marie's TSB Fills 2020 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1603813
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: Pepperony Bingo 2020, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	It is the wind, that shows you the way.

**Author's Note:**

> AND HERE COMES MY LAST TSB FILL AND THEREFORE MY BLACKOUT FILL LALALALA. 
> 
> Hope you like it 😊

_ You find your soulmate in a dream they say, and that dream can be so many things at once sometimes you don't realize that's what your subconscious has been telling you, and yet it was.  _

Tony woke up on the day of his father's funeral, already tired by his last round of chemo and hoping Dr. Cho would at least tell him he was free to go to the cemetery without some kind of oxygen sterile bubble or other. Being immunosuppressed sucked on the best of days but this one in particular wasn't looking great - he could do without another hindrance, thank you very much. 

He watched Cho's face carefully when she came to do her round, with only the one nurse instead of her armada of interns for once. That woman had a poker face like no other. 

"So?" Tony prodded when it appeared Cho would talk and ask about approximately anything other than tell him what he really wanted to hear. His mother would be devastated if he couldn't come. Or, more devastated, for all Tony knew, he assumed she wasn't doing peachy right now. 

"You can go, Tony," the doctor nodded, her chart under arm and a small smile - that pity smile of sympathy grief, thank God she never had that one when they talked about his cancer, she had more experience than  _ that _ . "But,"

"But?" Tony repeated, aware that he was being a brat, yet unwilling to reel it in. 

"But only if you promise not to linger." 

"I fail to see how I'd want to linger to a funeral. Especially when I have such a  _ castle _ to come back to!" 

Cho stifled a laugh at that, shaking her head. Good. He could still make people laugh. Hopefully he'd be able to make his mother smile at least, before he had to leave. 

_ You see your soulmate in your mind's eye, and their eyes is what you see first.  _

"Tony? Tony, are you alright? I can't let you go if you're feeling faint," Cho's voice pulled Tony out of his torpor. 

He shook his head, trying to chase away the immaculate blue eyes that had filled his own, the light in them, the speckles of yellow and brown, blond lashes obscuring them now and then as they'd blinked slowly. 

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he shook his head again, placating the doctor with a slightly strained smile. She didn't believe him, but she also didn't seem to find it too concerning because she nodded. 

"Okay, then I'll leave you with Martin, he'll help you get ready and I'll see you tonight, alright?"

"Yup, Martin and I have a lot to do to make me look like a proper Stark, that's probably wise," Tony winked at Martin, the man's cheeks splitting in a grin - he was Tony's favorite nurse for a reason. "Bye doc, and thanks." 

* * *

Pepper tugged on the collar of her shirt, hoping beyond reason that it would loosen yet keep her scar shielded from the sun like it had to be. She really didn't know why her boss had insisted they all be there, she was only an intern in a business contracted with Stark Industries. She didn't know Howard Stark nor had she ever entertained the idea of knowing him. And she most certainly had other things to do. Like sleep. For a thousand years. Or ask her Dr. Cho for a better dosage of her levothyroxine. Or eat an entire plate of fries. Any or all in whatever order the universe would let her. 

Showing up at Howard Stark's funeral after he died in a tragic car crash was not anywhere close to making the list of Pepper's priorities, and yet here she was. Don't get her wrong, it was a sad thing, to die at such a young -  _ 47? _ \- age, but for the love of God she missed her bed. And the sun was annoying her. 

_ You meet your soulmate at a crossroad, and that crossroad is never the same nor in the road. It is your life's, it is your heart's. You're never ready, and yet the universe says you are.  _

Was Pepper at a crossroad? Would she ever be? Did having a treatable yet terrible cancer put you at life or heart crossroad? 

She'd rather have had a promotion offer. That'd have been a cool crossroad. 

But she was having flashes, and her radiations treatment was over, so that wasn't it. Which logically meant, that it was time, and that if the stories were to be given any credit, this was her crux moment. 

The eyes had been pretty. Honey brown and doe-like, dark lashes and a softness to them that wasn't leaving her mind. 

_ It is the wind, that shows you the way.  _

* * *

Tony glared at his knees. Another thing Cho had failed to mention was that he could leave, yes, but in a wheelchair or nothing. What a dick move. 

He'd seen the look in his mother's eyes, how worried she was in the midst of her grieving face. It didn't matter how much he told her this was only precautionary, just like it had never mattered how much he said he was fine it the past. Even if, granted, if hadn't been right every time - brain tumors were not the textbook definition of fine… but they were benign! Almost. He was fine. 

There were too many people for the reality of his father's friend and family circle. The man made every last well-intentioned person run in the other direction over the years, so it made no sense that there would be anymore than four and half people at his funeral. Tony guessed that must mean at least a third of them were assholes as big as his father had been - especially the last few years of his life - and that the rest must have been dragged along for some reason or other. 

He was only here for his mother. 

He didn't even have a speech or anything. 

He didn't care. 

_ You find your soulmate in the midst of the world, in the mist of your life and the tear in your eye. Them only, will your tear dry away.  _

Tony had always had trouble believing the old soulmates tale. His parents weren't soulmates, he didn't know many couples around him who were. Only Jarvis and Ana, they had been. And what good did that do when the pain of losing one, killed the other in mere weeks. 

He shouldn't think about that. That made him cry, it always did. 

The service was over practically as soon as it had started, at least the part Tony was pretending to care about. He didn't want to sing, or pray - so he rolled himself out of the immediate family circle and wished he could smoke while gazing at the lines upon lines of cars from where he'd stopped, in the parking lot. What-

"-a joke," a voice behind him groaned. 

Tony turned around, blinking the remaining tears from his eyes as he was met with the sight of a particularly pretty woman. Blond, or redheaded, actually, tall, and wearing a blue dress with silk for miles and a high collar ending in a bow at her neck. She… yeah she looked pretty damn gorgeous even before Tony looked up to meet her gaze and he choked. 

The eyes. 

The blue eyes speckled with yellows and browns he couldn't see from this distance but knew were there. 

The woman's mouth formed an "o" of surprise, her brows rising. 

"Tell me you weren't crying for that guy?" She said, the scorn in her voice full of disbelief making Tony laugh. 

"No," he shook his head, "I mean, I could, he was my Dad, but no," 

"What? Oh my God, I'm so sorry," she put a hand on her heart, shame washing over her face clear as day. 

Tony was tempted to joke around and let her think he was offended. But one should not prank their soulmates, right? Shit. 

"Don't be, he was a right bastard."

The woman kept watching him carefully, until eventually, she stepped closer to him and gave him a strained smile, shrugging, "That's what I heard."

Tony laughed again. 

"I'm Tony," he held out his hand. 

"Right, Tony Stark," she nodded, then took his hand, "I'm Virginia Potts, most people call me Pepper."

"'Cause your  _ spicy _ ?" Tony asked lamely. 

"'Cause I'm  _ bitey _ ," she winked back. 

"Well Pepper, I've been seeing you in my dreams, care to tell me what that means?" Tony whispered when their hands stayed in one another's and neither of them seemed inclined to let go. 

"Well Tony, I've been seeing you in mine, and I think it means we get to get the heck out of here and go have coffee," she said, with that same small smile tugging the corner of her lips up. 

"Can't do coffee," Tony parted his hair with his free hand to reveal his scar. 

To his surprise, Pepper's face distorted, not in the discomfort of people who don't know what to say, but in the confusion of someone who couldn't believe what they were seeing. 

"And I can't do sun exposure, so, a quiet café with a covered terrace that has smoothies?" She said decisively, her own free hand tugging the collar of her dress down just long enough for Tony to see the incision scar along her throat - thyroid. Got it. 

"Sounds great." Tony smiled. 

He couldn't remember how long it had been since he'd smiled this truly. 

He couldn't remember how long it had been since he sat with someone for any length of time without feeling bored out of his mind in record time.

He didn't remember the time it was at all. The afternoon went on and on and on and the sun went down and the only way he realized he was late to go back to the hospital was his phone ringing loudly and buzzing itself almost off the table with the name of Dr. Cho's secretary blinking on the screen. 

"Shit."

"You're a patient of Cho's as well?" Pepper interrupted herself mid-childhood story when she read the name - upside down. 

"Hm, yeah. Staying at the hospital until my scar and scans are all good." Tony confirmed quietly. 

"Let me take you back?" 

Tony watched the woman's face, the same way he'd watched her all day it seemed - in awe, and disbelief that this would really be given to him, a soulmate? Really? 

And the truth was, that the more they talked and the more Tony was around Pepper, the more he could see it, and feel it, how his body had despaired of finding her, how his heart was finally ready to open up to someone for real. That it had taken this long and this many obstacles to get there was irrelevant, forgotten, unimportant. 

"Sure, yeah, I'd like that." He nodded, rolling back from the table and back to her car, glancing at her every now and then. 

* * *

"I'd been waiting for you a long time, Virginia Pepper Stark, born Potts, a long long time." Tony said, his voice strong and steady as they stood, five years to that first coffee, that first meeting turned first date, in front of their real family and true friends and none of the performative tools that had come to pay their false respects to his father. 

"And I'd been waiting just as long, and unsuspectingly walked that day, walked to you."

"I promise to walk with you,"

"Hand in hand,"

"Minds and hearts, one,"

"Together,"

"Always."

_ It is the mate the soul chooses, and not the soul the mate picks. It is two souls that merge into one, and there is no match, like fire and earth, like ether and the beauty of two hearts made for one another, when your soulmate finds you, and you them. _


End file.
